The Olive Opinion

  After The Summer I Turned Pretty ended, it seems Amazon Prime was banking on another romance hit for their streaming service, and they have found it. The Off Campus phenomenon is what everyone is talking about. Authored by Elle Kennedy, this first season adapts the first book, focusing on the fake-relationship trope between Hannah, an aspiring composer, and Garrett, the star hockey player on the college team.  Personally, the idea of this show did not appeal to me. From the outside perspective, it was another scandalous, almost trashy romance show that seemed to make a relationship unnecessarily messy to make the plot interesting. Based on that sentiment, it seemed that Off Campus was also capitalizing on the more problematic aspects of romance outlets that have been exciting audiences today.  However, I finally tuned in to the show a month after its release, and it does prove itself not only entertaining but also offering real, healthy ways of approaching several of ...

  James Gunn continues to build a new and improved DC universe, especially after the success of Superman . Seemingly continuing to build the super family first, he now brings Supergirl to the screen after teasing her at the end of the David Corenswet-led  Superman , with expectations that it will specifically adapt the " Woman of Tomorrow " version of the character from the famous Tom King comic book miniseries. Was bringing Supergirl to the fold of a very fragile restart of the DC universe going to excite audiences enough to watch this?  Supergirl , like I said, is adapting an iteration of the character that proved to be a bold take on the Girl of Steel and has grown into one of the most iconic comic book series of all time. Director Craig Gillespie and up-and-coming screenwriter Ana Nogueira are very loosely inspired by the source material, sometimes for the better and sometimes for the worse. Fans of the comic book can go either way, seeing a new iteration of that alr...

  It has been 30 years since Pixar began gracing our screens with some of the best animation and created the Toy Story Franchise. We all thought they would have ended the franchise with the third one back in 2010. But then came another, which seemed to have surprised the general public with how relevant the sequel would be, and if we really needed it, and it went on to make a billion dollars. Similar discourse occurred when it was announced there would be a fifth.  The fifth entry features a more timely conversation with our iconic, lifelike toys as they face their greatest threat yet: technology. When Bonnie is handed her first Lilypad (basically an iPad to avoid trademark issues), will she want to play with toys again? With that at hand, there seems to be a random storyline of Buzz Lightyear toys roaming around to find... purpose? That's all I'll say about the sequel without giving anything away.  But this sequel, formidably, is much better than the fourth, even though ...

  The horror renaissance continues, and in celebration of Pride Month, Neon finally releases the film we've been waiting for. Leviticus' dark take on a coming-of-age queer romance through a supernatural horror lens is something audiences might want right now. With the two genres experiencing an unprecedented resurgence, does this plot manage to create its own space as iconic or as fodder before the resurgence runs its course?  Leviticus centers around two young boys in a heavily religious rural Australian town, and as a form of conversion therapy, queer kids are faced with a ritual that engages their confusion and sexuality with fear. At first, the film seems like your average forbidden-love story, with stolen glances, a secret hideout, and some teenage jealousy. 20 to 30 minutes in, that does take a turn, but rather in the sense of finding its balance, it manages to seamlessly let you go with where it is heading when we, as an audience, are facing the complexities of these y...

  Steven Spielberg is posing the question not of whether we are alone in the universe, but rather of whether we know we aren't. Disclosure Day is Spielberg's return to the sci-fi genre, with a top-billed cast meant to be seen on the big screen. With the intentionally mysterious marketing, it was at times both hard and easy to tell what the plot was aiming for. The main question was which perspective it intended to illuminate, especially in historical cases dismissed as mere conspiracy theories.  Without giving too much away, the film revolves around Josh O'Connor and Emily Blunt's characters, (as well as I think everyone's characters, from the likes of Colin Firth, Eve Hewston and Colman Domingo) caught in a race to reveal a specific truth, sparking a debate of withholding the truth to avoid mass public, or considering the inherent fear of admitting the truth, whatever that may be, in themselves. In the wake of it, creating a plot that questions, and to some extent...

In a heap of nostalgia that comes into play when going to theaters these days, Masters of the Universe leans into it the most as it tries to bring the power of He-Man back to the silver screen (once again) with a bigger budget and up-and-coming actors. This will be Amazon MGM's next attempt at creating a hit in the multiplex after what Project Hail Mary ended up becoming, this time partnering with Mattel to create yet another adaptation of the famous toy line/80's cartoon.  The movie centers on the lost Prince Adam, stranded on Earth, as he tries to find his way back to Eternia to fulfill his destiny, save his parents, and defeat the maniacal Skeletor. In finding the Sword of Grayskull, he has to embrace his power while also convincing the people, whether in Eternia or on Earth, that he is the lost prince and has a destiny for more in an '80s-inspired fantasy realm than his forced life in a cubicle     Masters Of The Universe very much tries to be Barbie for men, but that...